


Even If You Are a Traitor

by LadyBrooke



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-19
Updated: 2013-06-19
Packaged: 2017-12-15 11:57:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/849291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Aredhel and Celegorm decide to drag toddler Argon on a hunting trip, things quickly go bad. Then the rest of the family gets involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even If You Are a Traitor

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an Art Trade with Gwenniel on dA. Her request was for Aredhel. She also happens to love Celegorm, so all of this spawned. 
> 
> My request was for Orodreth with Aegnor, and perhaps Angrod sneaking in as well (that was a Orodreth, son of Finarfin day for me.) I got [this lovely picture](http://fav.me/d5v8s1y). Even though my half was horrendously late, I'm glad she liked it.

Celegorm looked up from where he was tending his horse. He smiled as he saw Aredhel appear around the bend on her horse, before noticing her frown and then - was that Argon? On a miniature horse?

Aredhel brought her horse to a canter to finish the distance between them, letting Argon continue at his own slow pace. She smiled when she reached Celegorm, who was now frowning at Argon. “Hello! I’m sure you noticed my new shadow.”

Celegorm nodded. “Why is he here? You and I were supposed to go hunting today.”

“Atar and Amil ordered me to watch him today, so here he is. But we can still go hunting. He’ll just have to follow along,” Aredhel said.

Celegorm looked at Argon again. His horse was still half way down the road. “I don’t think he could keep up, and what if we get too far ahead?”

“He’ll be fine! Come on, didn’t Curufin follow you all one day when he was younger? And look, he’s all grown up with a wife of his own now. It’ll be fine,” Aredhel said. “Don’t you want to go hunting with me, Tyelko?” She pouted up at him.

Celegorm mentally cursed, before nodding. “Yes, I want to go. I suppose he couldn’t get lost too easily.”

Argon had finally reached them. Aredhel knelt down and looked him in the eye. “Celegorm and I are going hunting, like I told you earlier. You need to keep quiet and follow us, okay?”

Argon nodded enthusiastically, “I be very quiet.”

Aredhel looked at Celegorm, “See, no problem. He’ll be fine.”

Celegorm swung up on his horse. “If you’re sure, than let’s get on with it.”

Aredhel grinned, “Come on, Argon!” Swinging onto her horse, she encouraged it into a canter again. As she and Celegorm disappeared in the woods, Argon tried to encourage his to keep up.

~

A few hours later, Celegorm spotted a stream and stopped next to it. Sliding off his horse, he grabbed a waterskin from his pack and filled it with water.

“Munchkin! Want some water?” Celegorm waited, frowning when no answer came. “Argon? Can you hear me? It’s time to take a break.”

Aredhel appeared from the woods. “Why are you yelling for my brother?”

“Where is he? He’s probably hungry or thirsty, and he’s not answering me,” Celegorm stood up. “Was he following you?”

“I thought he was following you!” She exclaimed. “He has to be around here somewhere.”

“If he was here, he’d come out for water! He’s a kid, he needs it,” Celegorm snapped. “I can’t believe you lost your brother.”

“I lost my brother? You were supposed to be watching him too,” Aredhel moved closer to Celegorm.

“I didn’t even know you were bringing him until you arrived with him!” Celegorm yelled, startling a few birds from a nearby tree.

“Fine. Look, we have to find him. He can’t be harder to find than a deer or something, and he couldn’t have gone far. We’ll just search for him, and as soon as we find him, we’ll go back to the city. It shouldn’t take too long.”

That was quickly proven wrong. In the time they had searched for Argon, the two found two foxes, a squirrel, and a clearing with a dozen deer, but no Argon.

Aredhel kicked a tree. “Where in the world could he have gone? He’s not even that big.”

“If he’s smart and we’re lucky, he headed back to the city when he realized we were too far away,” Celegorm looked at the cave he had just searched. “I think we need to tell your parents that we lost him.”

“No! We can find him. Let’s go back to the city. If we don’t see him on the way there, we’ll get our siblings and cousins to help,” Aredhel glared at him, causing Celegorm to groan.

“Alright. Let’s go,” Celegorm just knew this was all going to end with the entire lot of them being dragged in front of their Grandfather.

~

Two hours later, it seemed that Celegorm wasn’t alone in his belief. Aegnor was now staring at Aredhel and him.

“You want us to go search through the city and the forest to find Argon - who you lost - without alerting any of our parents or grandparents to the fact that we lost him. When instead, we could tell Grandfather and have all the guards join us in looking and find him quicker,” he grumbled.

Celegorm nodded, “For some reason, Aredhel doesn’t want us to tell anyone that we lost him.”

“Perhaps because you two weren’t supposed to take the boy hunting,” Maglor said from his perch on a desk.

“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t it be alright to take him,” Celegorm started.

“Atar and Amil said to keep him in the city!” Aredhel burst out, looking ready to cry.

“What?” Celegorm breathed out heavily. “Your parents didn’t want you to leave the city with him, and you told me it was fine to take him on a hunting trip?”

Caranthir quickly spoke up, “While I’m sure watching your two’s lovers spat would be fascinating, I think the bigger problem is that we currently have a lost cousin. Also, that Turgon decided to bring his minions with him to this clandestine family meeting, for some reason.”

Glorfindel and Ecthelion looked offended at this, but backed off a glance from Turgon. “If my brother is missing in a forest, Caranthir, I’m going to have as many people as possible looking for him. Is that a good enough reason for you?”

“Enough!” Maedhros finally spoke. “With Argon missing, our time could be best spent looking for him, and not here talking. Finrod, can you and Galadriel search the areas nearest to the river? You two are the best swimmers.” Seeing nods, he continued. “Aegnor, Angrod, take the area on the east of the city, near the route to Alqualondë, in case he wandered that far. Orodreth and Maglor, you two take the city. Turgon, take Glorfindel and Ecthelion and search in the forests closest to Taniquetil. Fingon, you’re going with me towards the Trees. Caranthir, take the Ambarussa and go towards Formenos. Curufin, go with Celegorm and Aredhel please. They’ve already searched most of where they are, quickly check that and then head towards Oromë’s forests, though I doubt he went that far.”

For once, everyone listened and departed with a minimum amount of argument. Maedhros looked at Fingon. “I just know this is going to be a disaster.”

Whether it was Maedhros’ words bringing the disaster, or a simple fact of life when that many members of the House of Finwë were expected to work together, things quickly went downhill.

Within an hour, almost everyone had run into problems. The worst had probably been Fingon falling in a hole and hitting his head, though Finrod sliding down into the river had been bad too. Aegnor and Angrod had somehow managed to get in a fight with someone, Turgon had been spotted by his still disapproving father-in-law and run off, and the Ambarussa had to drag Caranthir away from some Maia to stop another fight. 

Then of course, there had been the resounding voice of Fëanor in their heads, ordering everyone back to the city.

Aredhel and Celegorm felt vaguely doomed at this. Aredhel especially, given that at the very least, Fëanor wouldn’t let his half-brother punish Celegorm too severely. The feeling of doom only increased when the entire group was lead into a room where their grandfather as well as Fingolfin and Finarfin were waiting for them.

Aredhel gulped as she was quickly pushed to the front of the group. The fact that she and Celegorm were somehow the only ones not sporting injuries - though no one knew how Maglor and Orodreth were, because they still hadn’t returned - meant they were now getting even more glares from their siblings and cousins.

Finwë finally spoke, “Is there anything you want to tell us, Aredhel?”

She shook her head, leading Fingolfin to groan in exasperation, while Finarfin stared. Finwë also shook his head, “Perhaps related to one of your brothers?”

“Well, Fingon fell in a hole today and hit his head, you might want to call a healer to look at that,” she said.

“I already called one to look over anyone injured,” Finwë sighed. “Perhaps a different brother?”

“Turgon got chased by his father-in-law today. I still don’t see how anyone could think Turgon is a disreputable son-in-law though.”

“Aredhel,”Fingolfin finally spoke.

“Yes, Ata?” she smiled. Behind her, the assembled mass of cousins looked ready to flee and escape the coming confrontation.

“Where is Argon?” Fingolfin looked ready to throw something out of the window. The Ambarussa began to slowly move closer to the door, while Aegnor and Angrod decided to use Turgon as a shield. Caranthir and Curufin apparently had the same idea, ducking behind Maedhros.

“Well, you see…” Aredhel began.

“Yes?” Finwë prompted.

“It’s all Celegorm’s fault?” she tried.

“Traitor! You didn’t even tell me we weren’t supposed to take him hunting! How was I supposed to…” Celegorm suddenly froze, seeing the look on Fingolfin’s face.

“You took Argon out hunting with the two of you?!”

At this, the Ambarussa gave up trying to reach the door, and ran to hide behind Finwë instead. The rest of Finwë’s grandchildren glared at them, causing Amrod to stick out his tongue.

While all of this was going on, Celegorm began to pray to Eru for his father to arrive back soon. At least then his chances of dying would decrease a little. Aredhel just looked big eyed at her father, who was now trying to take calming breaths. 

Right then Fingon started mumbling about tossing him in the fire. Fingolfin appeared at least slightly distracted by his son’s apparent concussion based break with sanity, allowing everyone a moment of peace.

Caranthir looked puzzled for a moment. “Wait, why are you more concerned with the fact that they took him hunting, instead of that they lost him?” he finally said. 

Finwë, Fingolfin, and Finarfin all looked guilty at that.

“He came back, didn’t he? Or someone found him. And then these two idiots dragged us all out to search for him, and he was right here the whole time,” Caranthir’s face was rapidly turning red.

“For once, I agree with Caranthir,” Turgon spoke up. Aredhel almost wished that Argon was still lost, if it meant that Caranthir and Turgon wouldn’t agree with each other.

“Indis was out riding near the road to the forest earlier. She found Argon and brought him back - in need of a slight bath from playing with some frogs, but with no harm done,” Finwë finally answered.

“Great. Just great. Celegorm, you better watch where you sleep tonight,” Caranthir grumbled. “Or I’ll take Fingon up on his suggestion, and toss you in a damn fire.”

“Language, Caranthir,” Fëanor had finally appeared, herding Maglor and Orodreth.

“But Atar, do you know what we’ve been through today?” Celegorm said.

“Perhaps you’ll learn better than to take toddlers on hunting trips,” Fëanor’s lips twitched upwards. “And the rest of the family - with the exceptions of Orodreth and Maglor - has probably learned a valuable lesson about listening to plans that you and Aredhel have come up with.”

Aredhel frowned again, wanting to defend herself. One look at her father’s face convinced her that was likely a bad idea.

“Why didn’t you two learn a lesson?” Aredhel looked at her cousins.

“While the rest of you were traveling the depths of the forest and apparently getting injured, Orodreth and I decided to inquire with the lovely ladies of Tirion if they had happened to see Argon,” Maglor said.

Orodreth laughed and smirked at this, causing Finarfin to drop his head into his hands.

“I hate you all,” Celegorm finally said. Aredhel looked at him. “Except you, even if you are a little traitor that gets me into trouble.”

**Author's Note:**

> For those not on Twitter, the line about toss him in the fire came when I asked Gwen if she had a hatred of toddler!Argon, since he played an important role and then quaified with "In the same way the ring is kind of important in the books". Then there was conversation about "THROW ARGON IN THE FIRE!"...it sparked ideas and sneaked into the story.


End file.
